The present invention relates in general to the fixing of lighting and/or signaling apparatus into motor vehicles.
Conventionally, a device for fixing a headlamp casing, for example, to the front of a vehicle comprises mounting means which, in a first state known as pre-mounting state, allow slight displacement of the casing with respect to the fixed part onto which it is mounted, particularly in order to make it possible to adjust the position of the glazing of the headlamp with respect to the adjacent bodywork. In a second state, locking is effective, so that the headlamp is fixed into the previously adjusted position.
These devices are more or less complex, and rely in particular on relatively bulky additional pieces mounted on the casing of the headlamp, which exhibits the double drawback of increasing the cost price of the headlamp and the space necessary for housing it under the engine hood.
Moreover, these known devices generally rely on a first locking of the headlamp (pre-mounting) by the use of first means, then on a final fixing by the use of second means, separate from the first ones. This further increases the cost price and complicates the mounting operations.
The present invention aims to remedy these drawbacks of the state of the art and to propose a lighting or signaling apparatus equipped with adjustable fixing means which are very simple and reliable to employ, which are economical to produce, and which moreover offer good inviolability of the apparatus once it has been mounted into the vehicle. A further object of the invention is to propose pre-mounting arrangements designed in keeping with such adjustable fixing means in order further to reinforce the inviolability and avoid play, which is particularly a source of vibration, due to manufacturing tolerances.
Hence the invention, according to a first aspect, proposes a lighting or signaling apparatus for a motor vehicle, including a casing and means for adjustable fixing of the said casing onto a structural part of the vehicle, as well as abutment means opposing a displacement of the headlamp in a given direction in order to define a reference position of the said headlamp with respect to the bodywork of the vehicle, characterized in that the said adjustable fixing means comprise a member for fixing by rotation able to interact with the said structural part and driving a cam-forming means, during an initial phase of its rotation, able to push the apparatus in the said given direction.
Preferred, but not limiting, aspects of the apparatus according to the invention are as follows:
the said fixing member consists of a screw,
the said cam-forming means comprises a dowel exhibiting an essentially circular part forming a cam and traversed eccentrically by the said screw,
the said screw entrains the said dowel in rotation via the interaction of limited friction between the threading of the screw and a passage formed in the dowel for the screw to pass into,
the dowel has a barrel accommodating the said screw and able to be engaged closely in an aperture formed in the said structural part of the vehicle,
the said barrel comprises a plurality of branches able to be stressed by the said screw, when it is screwed up, towards a wall of the said structural part delimiting the said aperture,
the said dowel consists of two parts linked by at least one frangible area, an inner part being integral in rotation with the screw while an outer part forming [sic] a cam,
the said screw is screwed directly into an aperture formed in the structural part of the vehicle,
the said cam-forming part acts on a low wall surrounding a housing in which it is held,
the casing of the apparatus possesses at least one pre-mounting lug possessing a terminal hooking part and able to interact with an aperture formed in the said structural part.
According to a second aspect, the invention proposes a structural element for a motor vehicle, characterized in that it consists of a single-piece component intended to extend at the front of the vehicle over a substantial part of its width and possessing, in the region of its two lateral extremities, arrangements for the mounting and the fixing of two items of apparatus as defined above, constituting left-hand and right-hand headlamps.
The invention also proposes an assembly of a structural element as defined above and of two items of lighting apparatus as defined above, constituting left-hand and right-hand headlamps.
According to a third aspect, the invention proposes a structural element for a motor vehicle, intended to accommodate at least one item of apparatus the casing of which possesses at least one pre-mounting lug possessing a terminal hooking part and able to interact with an aperture formed in the said structural element, characterized in that it possesses at least one first aperture for accommodating the member for fixing by rotation belonging to the adjustable fixing means of the apparatus, and at least one second aperture intended to accommodate a pre-mounting lug of the apparatus of the apparatus [sic] while allowing it to be displaced in the said given direction, the said second aperture having a width, measured transversely to the said given direction, which reduces when the said slot is traveled along the said given direction.
Advantageously, each second aperture, along the said given direction, comprises a first part with a constant width followed by a second part with a second constant width less than the first one; for example, the said first constant width is greater than the overall thickness of an associated pre-mounting lug, while the second constant width is slightly greater than the thickness of a linking part of the said lug.
In order to compensate for play and avoid vibration, the element may also comprise, in the vicinity of each second aperture, a ramp able to force the associated pre-mounting lug in a direction tending to extract it from the said second aperture.
Finally the invention proposes an assembly of a structural element according to the third aspect above and of at least one lighting or signaling apparatus as it is defined therein.